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Monday, November 08, 2010

Palin Propels The Debate About 2012

Does Sarah Palin want to be a serious contender in politics, does she want to be a kingmaker, or does she want to be a celebrity? That is for her to determine and now is the time for her to do it. She received mixed results from the kingmaker role and it is harder to take her as a serious contender in 2012 if she continues on in entertainment gossip television.

This is the latest release from Team Sarah:

Palin contends she will have to call a family meeting and poll their thoughts on a Presidential run. Daughter Bristol is on the record as supportive and there is an Anchorage radio station hoping to pick up publicity with the announcement:

Even Bristol Palin wants her mother to run for president, telling CBS, "I know she is great, and she is great for our country." And since we are now officially in premature presidential season, inquiring minds wonder: When will we know? If Sarah Palin makes that big announcement, she's pledged to make it on KWHL, a local Anchorage FM rock station, where the playlist includes Metallica and the Foo Fighters.

Cool. But so what? Here's a bit of a piece in The Economist:

On balance, Mrs Palin undermined her potential credibility by focusing on politics rather than policy, by gambling on a slew of high-profile endorsements (which kept her on television, at campaign events) rather than trying to find and nurture a handful of intellectual or philosophical protegees. Her "mama grizzlies" concept was a clever bit of branding, but the campaign never advanced beyond identity politics.

Having defined herself as an intrinsically political figure, Mrs Palin is bound by the rules of that game. And so she emerges from the 2010 cycle as a diminished national figure. This is partly the natural career progression of an also-ran: you get a special standing as the face of the opposition, until the next election cycle creates a new set of faces. So now the spotlight swings to people like Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, who in addition to being the face of the opposition are actually, having been in elected, in a position to do something about it. As for Mrs Palin, we won't hear so much from her until she makes a decision about 2012.

It's her choice now. Does she do the hard work? Does she read and study and develop more than talking points about policy? She has proven an expertise on energy issues. Can she do it on a more well-rounded national and international level?

In 2012, America deserves a decent choice to be run against our present President. This President has proven the disaster that awaits when he or she is unprepared and intellectually incapable of measuring up to the job.